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What is my site missing for improved ranking - Pls Help

I would really appreciate any advice or guidance on what my site needs to move onto the 1st page as I am at a loss on what else is required?

On a search for chartered accountants swansea according to the SEOMOZ campaign ranking report the site www.harrisbassett.co.uk is down in 27 position for this keyphrase in Google.

However when looking over the ranking analysis my site has a stronger authority, more root domains, more domain authority and linking root domains than 4 out of the top 5 listings. Also the onpage analysis of some of the top 10 results is very poor, with no blogs, social features etc

I have been building links based from competitor analysis which should be more than what is shown in the ranking report, but is my site missing any kep ingredients that would propel it up onto the 1st page - as the keyword difficulty is only 25% so I am struggling to work out what key elements/improvements are required for this final push.

8 Responses

I see your site presently ranked as the 14th result in Google.co.uk for "chartered accountants swansea".

You have a small site with 17 pages. The recommended approach would be to have your home page rank for your brand name "Harris Bassett" and an internal page to be created which specifically targets the keyword you wish to rank for "Chartered Accountants Swansea".

The process would be as follows:

1. Create a page titled "Chartered Accountants Swansea"

2. Use a H1 tag on the page "Chartered Accountant Swansea"

3. The content on the page should be specifically designed to support the page's topic.

4. There should not be other pages on your site discussing this topic or, if they do, then use anchor text to link back to the main page for the topic.

5. Earn links from other sites to the page using anchor text.

Your site has a variety of issues which I believe I shared with you previously when you presented this same issue.

1. Your home page is presently available under at least 4 unique URLs

http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/index.html

http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/

http://harrisbassett.co.uk/index.html

http://harrisbassett.co.uk/

You need to fix this problem for your site on your ranking will suffer. Choose one version of your URL you like and 301 redirect the other versions to the desired URL.

2. Presently your home page title is "Chartered Accountants Swansea | Harris Bassett Swansea". You also have another page on your site, http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk/accountant-swansea.html. The page title is "Harris Bassett | Swansea Accountant". While it is a different phrase, there are strong similarities, especially for such a small site.

The problem is raised because you use the term "chartered" on the latter page, and you do not use any link to refer back to your home page.

3. Your home page is also diluted by focusing multiple terms. The page is further diluted by discussing multiple topics not related to "Chartered Accountants Swansea" such as Taxation, Outsourcing, Financing and Grants.

I know you are looking at your site and comparing it to some other sites with the feeling you should rank better. You are right, you should rank better but that wont happen until you fix the issues with your site. The rankings as they stand seem perfectly valid to me. Yes, you mentioned a few of the 200+ factors which determine a page's rankings where your site performs better, but the above items should be addressed so you can cash in on those metrics.

Many thanks - I applied some of your great advice last time which helped so I am hoping this will also do that

With the multiple homepages is it possible you could supply the relevant .htaccess file required so the search engines know it should point to http://www.harrisbassett.co.uk and not any of the other 3 addresses you mention

My preference would be to ask your host to make that change. Most small sites use managed hosting, and almost every web host is willing to make that change for their customers.

If you make the change yourself and the slightest mistake is made, your website can be taken offline, your SEO compromised or your web security compromised. Additionally, the order of statements within the .htaccess file can alter the results.

The best solution by far is the .htaccess solution. The canonical tag still leaves you open to others using and linking to the wrong page.

As far as your host, if they are a "real" hosting company, they will have the knowledge to change the htaccess file and probably have done so for hundreds if not many thousands of sites. If they cannot make this change quickly and easily, I would consider changing hosts. Any quality host offers 24/7 telephone or at least ticket support. If I requested this change for any client of mine it would be made in 24 hours at worst, and often much faster.

Robert WaltersHead of Ecommerce and Web Development at The Furniture Market.co.uk

Oct 20, 2011

I completely agree with Ryan here.

When I started (@ the furniture market.co.uk) our home page was attempting to rank for loads of key words, I created sub pages.. long story short... Just yesterday in the Rank Tracker report I have guided a brand new sub page "glass-coffee-tables" to number 1 for that search term on Google.co.uk, against Argos, Amazon, John Lewis, M&S.. It can be done. (10 months later & all white hat)

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